Something for Everyone

Below are several art journal pages

I recently discovered in my A4 Dylusions

journal. I have used a wide variety

of stamps, stencils & other bits n pieces.

 I adore the quote stamps from Dyan Reavely, 

I have many in my collection including

the ones below.

 Madonna was drawn and coloured by the 

incredibly talented Lily Chilvers, sadly taken

 from this world at the tender age of 21.

Such a huge loss to the creative world.

She left behind some incredible work which

I am proud to use.

 The stamp images below are from Lynne

Perrella at PaperArtsy. The fan die cut is by

 Tattered Lace.

 The photograph doesn't do the colours in the 

page below justice. I used lots of gold paint

and inks along with some super stamps by

Artistic Stamper.

 I wanted to keep this page simple 

by using only 3 colours as I felt the 

image was very strong and stood by

itself alone.

 As some of you will know the semi-colon

is a symbol of strength and survival

of people who are suffering and have 

suffered with a mental health illness. 

My page below is a very personal page

and I am pleased to say that I am a

SURVIVOR.

 A fun page using big lips and a great

zip die cut.

 Finally this last page features Totally Tracy
 flower stamps. The small flowers and butterfly 

were designed by Hels Sheridan. The butterfly

is on card that has been alcohol inked.

I hope the variety in these pages will 

inspire you to get creating.

Vera Lane Studio

Another new love of mine is Vera Lane Studios.

I have been following the blog Betwixt this and that for a couple of years now, Nikki the blog owner makes some incredible ATC's using Vera Lane Studio downloads and I decided to give it a go and see what I could come up with.

The Facebook page of VLS has monthly swaps and the standard of the work is amazing. 

Below is my first piece, a 6" x 6" card coloured using watercolours.

The ATC below is the first swap I took part in.

As you can see, the images are a little quirky but lots of fun to use. There are a huge variety of images to choose from and I intend to make full use of as many as possible!

Meow

I thought I would share a couple of cards and a journal page I made using the Tim Holtz Crazy Cats stamps, I love these quirky stamps, such fun images.

I used a mask and a brick design Washi tape for the above card.

I decided to use colourful watercolour paint colours rather than realistic so staying with the quirky feel of the stamps.

I made the background for the journal page using gesso to give texture, Gelatos and string.

Meow

Today I thought I would share a journal page featuring the amazing Crazy Cats designed by Tim Holtz. 

I created the background using gesso a little heavily, swirling and giving a textured feel to the page, I then coloured it using Gelatos to follow the flow of the gesso.

I added more interest to the background using embossed wallpapers as stamps and added a swirl of string.

The cats were stamped onto stamping card and coloured using Distress Inks pads and a water brush before being cut out. Once stuck in place I used Washi

tape, a die cut and a piece of wallpaper (BIG) to 'sit' the cats on. 
I finished off the page with bits of doodling.

I loved making this page, the colours are so me and as you may know Gelatos are one of my must haves.

That's Crafty Challenge

Back in February I entered the That's Crafty monthly challenge and I'm pleased to say I made Top 3! Below are the ATC's I entered.

Scrap Thursday Part 30 & International Scrapbook Day

Clare Charvill from My Creative Spirit and Cathy Chapdelaine are running an International scrapbooking party during the month of March, this week is the last opportunity to enter. 
They have supplied a double page sketch this time, but you are only required to make one page, however, I thought I would have a go with both.

Materials used:
Graphic 45 'Forever Mine' from Mon Armour, 'Holiday Magic' from Nutcracker Sweet, 'World's Fair', 'Wonder Works' and 'Balloon Boutique' from World's Fair Collection.
Dylusions 'Christmas Borders' stamps
Stampers Anonymous 'City Scapes' and 'Warehouse District' stamps
Ranger Distress Ink pads Stormy Sky, Festive Berries, Evergreen Bough and Lucky Clover
Bazzill plain card stock.
Buttons, ribbon and journal pens from stash.

The theme this week is 'Cities', so I dug through my photos and found some of Brisbane, begging to be scrapped. 
When I went to Brisbane on this visit it was Christmas time and so very different to here in the UK. Santa wearing sunglasses and choirs singing traditional songs in tee shirts and shorts, it felt very odd!
Anyway I decided to use part Christmas paper and part something to fit with Brisbane and or the weather. When I looked at the 'World's Fair' collection by Graphic 45 I had a bit of a brain wave (this is not something that happens often), I dug out my Australia Album from my first visit and found my entrance ticket to Expo '88 (or World Fair as they are also called) which was held in Brisbane from 30th April to 30th October 1988. The Brisbane section had a huge sculpture of the word Brisbane very similar to the photo below (the one below is a current sculpture), I think the similarity is what got my mind working! 

So with all this in mind I decided I need look no further as the collection was perfect.
Due to all the colour in the photographs, ticket and papers I decided to use a white background which I'm still not sure about to be honest, I thought using something coloured might take away from everything that I wanted to use. Maybe it will grow on me with time lol.

I thought I would show you how I work when using a sketch. I print out the sketch which makes it much easier to annotate, add a list of materials used etc. I don't keep these they just go into recycling (by the end they are covered in scribble!) 

I added my ticket and some facts about Expo '88 for interest.

I loved the idea of stamping holly and using it next to the display showing Santa wearing sunglasses and a sun hat.

I added some tiny buttons as I felt there needed to be a little extra feature. I hope you find some inspiration in my layouts!

That's Crafty Crazy Cats!

ATC Challenge

That's Crafty are running an ATC challenge that runs until Friday 5th February, below are my entries. 

As soon as I saw these Crazy Cats stamps by Stampers Anonymous I knew I had to have them!   

I used a black Versa Mark ink pad to stamp the images onto white stamping card.

I then used Distress Ink pads to colour them in using a water pen. Finally I used white Dylusions paint to add some circles, dots and lines.

I hope you will agree they are great fun images to use.

Home of Music

This month at ATP the monthly challenge is all about letters.

Below is a pictorial guide to my entry.

Alphabet Soup!

 The finished result above was made using the step below.

 Four Naked letters

I took a used box that my phone charger lead came in.

 I used the Mermaid and Haystack Fresco paint 

(the Guacamole photo bombed)

I covered the box with Tissue Wrap using Studio Matt Medium as an adhesive.

I painted the letters with Mermaid Fresco and then stamped the music script (below) on the top surface. I used a black Adirondack ink pad to stamp the script and used Black Soot Distress Ink (DI) pad to edge the letters.

 After covering the box with tissue wrap I diluted some of the Haystack Fresco and gave a light covering across the whole box. I then used Vintage Photo DI through a stencil by Lin Brown.

On some card I stamped a keyboard and added other details. I used a Kaiser Craft record image, some rub ons by Tim Holtz and added a title.

I finished off the outside of the box using Vintage Photo DI pad.

 For the inside of the box I painted the it using Haystack Fresco. I then stamped onto some card the 'Dictionary of Musical Terms' stamp and edged the card in Vintage Photo.

 I took a piece of wood effect card and stamped the musical score randomly across it before gluing it into place on the base of the box.

The 4 letters fit perfectly.

I hope you like this simple way of covering a very boring box and making it useful again.